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Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly

Fast, chemically-selective sensing of vapors using an optical readout can be achieved with the photonic nanoarchitectures occurring in the wing scales of butterflies possessing structural color. These nanoarchitectures are built of chitin and air. The Albulina metallica butterfly is remarkable as bo...

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Autores principales: Kertész, Krisztián, Piszter, Gábor, Bálint, Zsolt, Biró, László Péter
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2018
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6308452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30563108
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18124282
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author Kertész, Krisztián
Piszter, Gábor
Bálint, Zsolt
Biró, László Péter
author_facet Kertész, Krisztián
Piszter, Gábor
Bálint, Zsolt
Biró, László Péter
author_sort Kertész, Krisztián
collection PubMed
description Fast, chemically-selective sensing of vapors using an optical readout can be achieved with the photonic nanoarchitectures occurring in the wing scales of butterflies possessing structural color. These nanoarchitectures are built of chitin and air. The Albulina metallica butterfly is remarkable as both the dorsal (blue) and ventral (gold-green) cover scales are colored by the same type (pepper-pot) of photonic nanoarchitecture, exhibiting only a short-range order. The vapors of ten different volatiles were tested for sensing on whole wing pieces and some of the volatiles were tested on single scales as well, both in reflected and transmitted light. Chemically-selective responses were obtained showing that selectivity can be increased by using arrays of sensors. The sensing behavior is similar in single scales and on whole wing pieces, and is similar in reflected and transmitted light. By immersing single scales in an index-matching fluid for chitin, both the light scattering and the photonic nanoarchitecture were switched off, and the differences in pigment content were revealed. By artificially stacking several layers of blue scales on top of each other, both the intensity of the characteristic photonic signal in air and the magnitude of the vapor sensing response for 50% ethanol vapor in artificial air were increased.
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spelling pubmed-63084522019-01-04 Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly Kertész, Krisztián Piszter, Gábor Bálint, Zsolt Biró, László Péter Sensors (Basel) Article Fast, chemically-selective sensing of vapors using an optical readout can be achieved with the photonic nanoarchitectures occurring in the wing scales of butterflies possessing structural color. These nanoarchitectures are built of chitin and air. The Albulina metallica butterfly is remarkable as both the dorsal (blue) and ventral (gold-green) cover scales are colored by the same type (pepper-pot) of photonic nanoarchitecture, exhibiting only a short-range order. The vapors of ten different volatiles were tested for sensing on whole wing pieces and some of the volatiles were tested on single scales as well, both in reflected and transmitted light. Chemically-selective responses were obtained showing that selectivity can be increased by using arrays of sensors. The sensing behavior is similar in single scales and on whole wing pieces, and is similar in reflected and transmitted light. By immersing single scales in an index-matching fluid for chitin, both the light scattering and the photonic nanoarchitecture were switched off, and the differences in pigment content were revealed. By artificially stacking several layers of blue scales on top of each other, both the intensity of the characteristic photonic signal in air and the magnitude of the vapor sensing response for 50% ethanol vapor in artificial air were increased. MDPI 2018-12-05 /pmc/articles/PMC6308452/ /pubmed/30563108 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18124282 Text en © 2018 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Kertész, Krisztián
Piszter, Gábor
Bálint, Zsolt
Biró, László Péter
Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title_full Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title_fullStr Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title_full_unstemmed Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title_short Optical Vapor Sensing on Single Wing Scales and on Whole Wings of the Albulina metallica Butterfly
title_sort optical vapor sensing on single wing scales and on whole wings of the albulina metallica butterfly
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6308452/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30563108
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s18124282
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